Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessment incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS•S. Teachers:
a. design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.
b. develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress.
c. customize and personalize learning activities to address students' diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources.
d. provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching.
My artifacts for this standard includes two PowerPoints, an instruction sheet and the tutorial PowerPoint converted to Flash.
The following PowerPoint served as an introduction for my students to become more familiar with the program. Each month, they read books for a monthly reading log. The students were asked to pick one book that they would like to illustrate through PowerPoint. Although the book was the subject of the PowerPoint with a basic summary and applicable pictures, the main goal with this assignment was far the students to demonstrate proficiency with using PowerPoint.
The first PowerPoint was a basic overview of different changes that can be made in PowerPoint. Following are a few pages from the PowerPoint.
The students were given a direction sheet that covered all the items shown in the PowerPoint.
The direction sheet above was used for the next PowerPoint which was opened in class but was not viewed as a slide show. Instead, the students took turns coming up to the SmartBoard and accomplishing the task was asked for on each page. For example, the second slide below asks them to take a graphic and give it a specific effect. This gave them practice in using the direction sheet.
Finally, it was time for the students to make their own PowerPoint in the lab. Upon reflection of how the activity went last year, I have since converted the tutorial PowerPoint to flash and added it to the Yellow Team website. This way, the student can go back to the tutorial and look at the visual instructions of how to do each task. They can access this tutorial from the computers in the lab while they're working on their own PowerPoint. Last year, some students did really well with the instruction sheet, but, because some of my students struggle with reading, a visual representation of the steps was needed for them.
Flash version of the PowerPoint Tutorial
This activity was very much focused on learning PowerPoint skills. Although my coteacher and I brought in a component from the monthly reading logs, the true evaluation was in having the students demonstrate that they could perform basic skills in PowerPoint. Although this did not have an immediate impact on academic skills, PowerPoints were able to be used easily later in the year for displaying results from research. This activity did promote student learning of PowerPoint and creativity in how they designed their PowerPoint presentation. The students worked very hard to find media that fit the theme of their books. We kept the criteria very general purposefully so that the students could stretch their creativity with this project. (Indicators A and B)
The requirements were very clear, and the students were given a check-off rubric to make sure they met all the requirements. This allowed them to manage their own learning and assess their own progress. (Indicator B)
The learning experience was customized and personalized by providing many resources before having the students try the PowerPoint on their own. They first saw where the tools were located and how they were used in a PowerPoint that followed a task-analysis procedure. Next, they used instruction sheets and a practice PowerPoint to test their skills during class. Finally, they worked in the lab using their instruction sheets.
As noted earlier, some students last year had difficulty using the written directions due to their reading difficulties. In response to this need, I converted the PowerPoint tutorial into a flash document and added it to the team webpage. This webpage is accessible to the students in the lab so that they can follow the visual tutorial as they are completing their own PowerPoints. (Indicator C)
By having the students learn how to use PowerPoint, the teachers were more easily able to use PowerPoints as a type of assessment, thus varying the formative and summative assessments they used when aligning with content and technology standards. This project was completed in reading, but I brought the skills the students learned over to language arts. Later in the year, the students researched a mysterious event such as the Lindbergh kidnapping. They took their research and created a PowerPoint to demonstrate their understanding of the topic. In the past, this activity was done as a written report. By changing it to a PowerPoint activity, the students found much more meaning because they had to find applicable pictures, had to organize the information in a specific manner and also had to distill the information into short snippets. This encouraged them to have to use elaboration skills when presenting and helped in avoiding plagiarism. (Indicator D)
Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessment incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS•S. Teachers:
a. design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.
b. develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress.
c. customize and personalize learning activities to address students' diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources.
d. provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching.
My artifacts for this standard includes two PowerPoints, an instruction sheet and the tutorial PowerPoint converted to Flash.
The following PowerPoint served as an introduction for my students to become more familiar with the program. Each month, they read books for a monthly reading log. The students were asked to pick one book that they would like to illustrate through PowerPoint. Although the book was the subject of the PowerPoint with a basic summary and applicable pictures, the main goal with this assignment was far the students to demonstrate proficiency with using PowerPoint.
The first PowerPoint was a basic overview of different changes that can be made in PowerPoint. Following are a few pages from the PowerPoint.
The students were given a direction sheet that covered all the items shown in the PowerPoint.
The direction sheet above was used for the next PowerPoint which was opened in class but was not viewed as a slide show. Instead, the students took turns coming up to the SmartBoard and accomplishing the task was asked for on each page. For example, the second slide below asks them to take a graphic and give it a specific effect. This gave them practice in using the direction sheet.
Finally, it was time for the students to make their own PowerPoint in the lab. Upon reflection of how the activity went last year, I have since converted the tutorial PowerPoint to flash and added it to the Yellow Team website. This way, the student can go back to the tutorial and look at the visual instructions of how to do each task. They can access this tutorial from the computers in the lab while they're working on their own PowerPoint. Last year, some students did really well with the instruction sheet, but, because some of my students struggle with reading, a visual representation of the steps was needed for them.
Flash version of the PowerPoint Tutorial
This activity was very much focused on learning PowerPoint skills. Although my coteacher and I brought in a component from the monthly reading logs, the true evaluation was in having the students demonstrate that they could perform basic skills in PowerPoint. Although this did not have an immediate impact on academic skills, PowerPoints were able to be used easily later in the year for displaying results from research. This activity did promote student learning of PowerPoint and creativity in how they designed their PowerPoint presentation. The students worked very hard to find media that fit the theme of their books. We kept the criteria very general purposefully so that the students could stretch their creativity with this project. (Indicators A and B)
The requirements were very clear, and the students were given a check-off rubric to make sure they met all the requirements. This allowed them to manage their own learning and assess their own progress. (Indicator B)
The learning experience was customized and personalized by providing many resources before having the students try the PowerPoint on their own. They first saw where the tools were located and how they were used in a PowerPoint that followed a task-analysis procedure. Next, they used instruction sheets and a practice PowerPoint to test their skills during class. Finally, they worked in the lab using their instruction sheets.
As noted earlier, some students last year had difficulty using the written directions due to their reading difficulties. In response to this need, I converted the PowerPoint tutorial into a flash document and added it to the team webpage. This webpage is accessible to the students in the lab so that they can follow the visual tutorial as they are completing their own PowerPoints. (Indicator C)
By having the students learn how to use PowerPoint, the teachers were more easily able to use PowerPoints as a type of assessment, thus varying the formative and summative assessments they used when aligning with content and technology standards. This project was completed in reading, but I brought the skills the students learned over to language arts. Later in the year, the students researched a mysterious event such as the Lindbergh kidnapping. They took their research and created a PowerPoint to demonstrate their understanding of the topic. In the past, this activity was done as a written report. By changing it to a PowerPoint activity, the students found much more meaning because they had to find applicable pictures, had to organize the information in a specific manner and also had to distill the information into short snippets. This encouraged them to have to use elaboration skills when presenting and helped in avoiding plagiarism. (Indicator D)